and judicious advice of St. Jerom.]

The Catholics of Constantinople were animated with joyful
confidence by the baptism and edict of Theodosius; and they
impatiently waited the effects of his gracious promise. Their
hopes were speedily accomplished; and the emperor, as soon as he
had finished the operations of the campaign, made his public
entry into the capital at the head of a victorious army. The next
day after his arrival, he summoned Damophilus to his presence,
and offered that Arian prelate the hard alternative of
subscribing the Nicene creed, or of instantly resigning, to the
orthodox believers, the use and possession of the episcopal
palace, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and all the churches of
Constantinople. The zeal of Damophilus, which in a Catholic
saint would have been justly applauded, embraced, without
hesitation, a life of poverty and exile, ^37 and his removal was
immediately followed by the purification of the Imperial city.
The Arians might complain, with some appearance of justice, that
an inconsiderable congregation of sectaries should usurp the
hundred churches, which they were insufficient to fill; whilst
the far greater part of the people was cruelly excluded from
every place of religious worship. Theodosius was still
inexorable; but as the angels who protected the Catholic cause
were only visible to the eyes of faith, he prudently reenforced
those heavenly legions with the more effectual aid of temporal
and carnal weapons; and the church of St. Sophia was occupied by
a large body of the Imperial guards. If the mind of Gregory was
susceptible of pride, he must have felt a very lively
satisfaction, when the emperor conducted him through the streets
in solemn triumph; and, with his own hand, respectfully placed